HU3513: Shakespeare II - Library Resources

Librarian: David Bezotte (dbezotte@mtu.edu, Phone 487-3041)

 

Resources in the Reference Collection - First Floor

The Reference Collection is a good place to collect background information on an issue or to start your research. The collection is arranged by subject matter, using the Library of Congress classification system (call numbers.) Try the following:

 

Current Biography (1940- ) CT 100 .C9 REF

Encyclopedia of World Drama PN1625 .M3 REF

Critical Survey of Drama PR 623 .C75 1994 REF

Elizabethan Dramatists (Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 62) PR651 .E48 1987 REF

Shakespeares World and Work PR2892 .S56 2001 REF

 

Use the Library of Congress Classification to browse the collection:

P - Language and Literature PN 2000-3299 - Theater

PN - Literature, Literary History and Collections PR English Literature

PN 1600-1861 Drama (as a literary form) PR 2890 2990 - Shakespeare

 

Resources on the Librarys Web Page - www.lib.mtu.edu

JRVP Online Catalog contains records of materials owned by the MTU Library.

Two search interfaces, Basic and Keyword allow the user to search for items by author, title, subject, call number, ISBN/ISSN, or keyword(s.)Catalog records include bibliographic and location information for items retrieved in your search. Use the Location, Status, Call Number information to find an item in the Library Collections.

 

E-Resources access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites.

To find citations to recent articles from journals, conference proceedings, and other publications, go to the Librarys web page and select E-Resources, then Search for an E-Resource. The resulting screen offers four search options for finding databases or electronic journals: (1) Keyword search of database titles/descriptions, (2) Search by subject area, (3) Search by collection name, (4) Browse an alphabetical list by title. Here are some of the collections/databases youll find there.

 

         FirstSearch

MLA (MLA Bibliography) Literature, languages, linguistics, folklore (1963- ) A key database for this class.

AH Search (Arts & Humanities) - A citation index which also includes periodical indexing

ArticleFirst - Index of articles from nearly 12,500 journals (1990- )

HumanitiesAbs An index of articles in the humanities (1984- )

WilsonSelectPlus Full text of articles from over 1400 periodicals (1994-)

Worldcat - Worldwide library catalog. This does NOT index periodicals at the article level.

         InfoTrac

Expanded Academic ASAP Includes humanities journals, some in full text (1980- )

General Reference Center Gold Includes arts & entertainment news from magazines and newspapers (1980- )

New York Times Full text articles for the past 12 months. Includes the Arts section.

         Lexis-Nexis Academic

General News News publications in full text going back about 20 years.

Arts & Sports News Includes play/performance reviews and entertainment news.

         JSTOR

Back issues of over 100 scholarly journals dated from with 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings. The Language and Literature section is a good source for this class.

 

Finding Older Periodical & Newspaper Articles

First Floor Indexes area Use print indexes to find articles dated earlier than those found through the online databases.

 

Readers Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1991) AI 3 .I6 INDEXES

Index to popular periodicals. For example, Shakespeare or Dramas or Hamlet.

 

New York Times Index (1913-present) AI 21 .N5 INDEXES

See TheaterReviews. The New York Times newspaper is available on Microfilm (AI 21 .N5) on the 1st Floor.

 

 

 

Interlibrary Loan access to items from other libraries.

Request items using an ILL form available at the Circulation desk or online (Under Library Services menu, select Interlibrary Loans.) Many index databases also allow ILL requests through their sites.

Note The ILL process can take time (longer than 10 days in some cases.) Plan your research time accordingly.

 

For Assistance

For individual assistance or instruction from a librarian, visit or phone the Reference/Information Desk (487-2507), e-mail reflib@mtu.edu, or use the Ask a Librarian button on the Librarys web page.

 

Quick Reference for Databases

 

Collection/ Database	Boolean	Proximity/ Phrase	Truncation/ Wildcards	Full Text	Retrieve Results
FirstSearch accesses about 50 databases, mostly periodical indexes with abstracts, including MLA Bibliography (MLA)	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character # single-character + singular or plural only (s or es) ? any number of characters	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
InfoTrac accesses an academic, a general interest, and a health science periodical index	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character   ! single-character   ? exactly one character	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
Lexis-Nexis Universe accesses news, business, legal, medical, and reference information	AND, OR	Phrase is system default W/n - either order within n words of one another W/p - either order, same paragraph W/s - either order, same sentence PRE/n - first word precedes the second by n words	! multiple-character   * single-character	Yes	E-mail, Disk, Print
JSTOR accesses back issues of over 100 scholarly journals from within 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings	AND, OR, NOT	Use quotation marks to search a phrase. Follow the expression in quotes with ~n to search for the enclosed words n words apart.	? single-character   Use multiple ? (up to 7) to match more than one character.	Yes	Print, Post Script file on hard drive

Each of these systems offers online help with more details on search capabilities.